Monarch Madness

Monarch Butterfly enjoying Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) earlier this summer

I've been away a lot this summer, but I am happy to report that our garden is doing just fine without me. Luckily, I put in a few days of weeding and thinning in June, or the whole place would be a mad jungle, overgrown and covered with towering goldenrod and swamp sunflowers. Instead, it is a lush and thriving riot of colors, but with some boundaries! And so when I returned this week from yet another trip out of town, I was tickled to discover about 20 monarch caterpillars happily munching on the big Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) in the front yard. It is common to see Monarchs here all summer, but the population really picks up in September and October as the butterflies make their way, usually above the treetops, to Mexico for winter. I believe that the caterpillars I'm seeing were from eggs laid one or two weeks ago. It appears that there are two batches on the bush--the big fat ones that are just about ready to pupate, and the ones about half their size that will be grown in about a week. I saw a female laying eggs yesterday and I hope that the ravenous hordes leave a few branches for the last generation.

Monarch caterpillars, madly munching

This is important to me because I love Monarchs. They're really pretty, and who doesn't admire their amazing migration story? And they're in danger. Monarch populations have decreased by about 90 percent from numbers recorded over 20 years ago. The causes are many--habitat destruction, pesticides, herbicides, and loss of their food source--milkweed, to name a few. It's exciting and uplifting to participate in the Monarch life cycle. Our yard is certified as a Butterfly Habitat and is a stop on the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail. Monarchs will only lay their eggs on plants in the Milkweed family. There are many varieties specific to regions of the country. We plant native nectar and host plants for many kinds of butterflies and refrain from using herbicides or pesticides in the garden. The result is a healthy habitat for all sorts of creatures--butterflies, bees, wasps, birds, moths, spiders, etc.

Milkweed Bugs eat Milkweed Seeds

Aphids infest the milkweed every year. They drink the sap. I don't mind them, but if they bother you, you can squirt them off with a hose or just brush off with a paint brush. Pesticides will harm other insects, such as butterflies.

Great big Green Lynx spider and lots of aphids

Japanese Lady Beetle (aka Ladybug) and aphids

Milkweed Beetle eats the leaves

But the garden is not without its perils for the butterflies. Last night I walked past the milkweed bush again and flushed a bird that was probably hunting for caterpillars and bugs on the stems. A moment later I spotted the female Monarch that earlier I had watched lay eggs. She was caught in the jaws of an enormous Green Lynx spider perched on top of the milkweed bush. The spider had caught the butterfly and was eating it. I felt a temporary twinge of sadness for the butterfly, but then cheered for the spider who needed food for herself. Her huge abdomen was swollen, probably with eggs, and she needed nourishment, too. The butterfly had passed on her genes through her eggs, so she had fulfilled her biological destiny and was now part of the food chain. Whether those eggs will grow to adults and also pass on genes is a crap shoot. But this is why butterflies lay so many eggs, and why it is important for there to be milkweed patches all over for them to lay their eggs on. This morning I found that the spider had caught one of the caterpillars and was busily sucking it dry. Birds and wasps catch and eat them, too. Aphids are very attracted to milkweed. They are sap suckers, and sometimes they will harm or kill the plants. But the aphids attract ladybugs and their larvae that snack on aphids like popcorn. Milkweed Bugs make their home in the plants and eat the seeds, and Milkweed Beetles eat leaves. The 20 hungry Monarch caterpillars will strip the leaves off the bush within another week or so and may eat themselves out of house and home. All these beings are competing for the resources on these plants.

Green Lynx spider with Monarch for dinner

Something killed this caterpillar, and now it is food for the ants. The green blobs are caterpillar poop, also called "frass"

Green Lynx Spider with Monarch caterpillar for breakfast

New Monarch egg, with shadow of a ladybug larvae on the back of the leaf

Big, fat Monarch caterpillars quickly defoliate a milkweed plant

Some people who grow butterfly gardens will collect the eggs and grow the caterpillars to adults inside protective enclosures to keep them safe. I totally understand their care and concern, but as I told someone yesterday, I am more of a "free range" butterfly gardener. It makes me uncomfortable to make these creatures my captives. I feel much better about providing an opportunity for them to grow and thrive out in the world, but as part of a greater ecosystem. That's another aspect of the tragic loss of the massive Monarch population. They are part of an interdependent web of life. We all feel their loss. I encourage everyone who has an interest in helping the Monarch to try to plant native milkweed in their garden or even in a container garden on a deck. Do your part to help keep this iconic insect from disappearing. Go out and garden on!

The caterpillar doesn't seem to mind the aphids

Update: a few days later I went out to see if the Green Lynx spider had caught any more caterpillars and found that it was missing! In its place was a caterpillar, casually chewing on the leaves of the hunter's lair. I thought the spider must have become a meal for a hungry wasp or bird, an ironic turn in the in the circle of life. But then I saw some movement in the Blue Mist Flower bush next to the milkweed. The spider had simply moved to richer hunting grounds. Maybe she got tired of eating bitter Monarchs, but in any case, the milkweed is now packed with caterpillars and other insects of all shapes and sizes, safer for now. The egg I pictured above hatched and its tiny contents now roam the branches alongside of the aphids. And I spotted the first of what I imagine are many chrysalids hanging from a low tree sprout, far away from the caterpillars and things that hunt them. And so it goes...

Caterpillar chewing on the spider's lair

Happy spider

New hatchling, not much bigger than an aphid

A fresh chrysalis, hopefully one of many

Join the Butterfly Trail!

Discovery Day at the Carter Center

This past weekend my husband and I had the pleasure of attending the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail Discovery Day at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta. The Butterfly Trail was established when former First Lady, Mrs. Carter became concerned after learning about the plight of the Monarch Butterfly and wanted to do something about it. She contacted Annette Wise, Program Director at the Jimmy Carter Education Program, who helped her start a butterfly garden at her home in Plains, Georgia to increase public awareness of the problem, especially for children, and to teach about the importance of planting milkweed. By creating her garden in Plains, Mrs. Carter inspired the creation of other butterfly gardens across the state and the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail began. Now the trail includes over 300 public, private and school gardens across the state of Georgia and the U.S. The pollinator garden at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta is one of the gardens on the Butterfly Trail. Up until a few weeks ago, I had never even heard of the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, but now I know a lot more and have already added our garden to the trail map!

The Pollinator Garden at the Carter Center

Proclaiming Pollinator Week and Recognizing the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail

We spent a fun and informative morning learning about butterflies and their habitat. We listened to speakers, including Mrs. Carter (!) who talked about the project and the importance of butterfly conservation. We watched a fun children's play about monarchs and visited the discovery stations. The activities were geared to children and it was very exciting to see the enthusiasm of the next generation of conservationists! At the end of the morning we purchased some native butterfly host and nectar plants to bring home to our own garden. It was a wonderful and uplifting day.

Mrs. Carter Speaking About Monarchs

Discussion After the Children's Play

Educational Stations

Creating Seed Balls

Monarch Caterpillar on Milkweed

Male and Female Monarchs

Monarch Body Prints to Test for Presence of a Protozoan Parasite
To Learn More About Citizen Science Projects Like This, Click HERE

The Local North American Butterfly Association (NABA) Chapter Had an Activity Table
Find Your Local Chapter and Join HERE. 

Butterfly Host Plants Native to the Georgia Piedmont Region

The migration of millions of Monarch butterflies from Canada to Mexico and back again every year is one of the world's natural wonders. But loss of habitat, development, the disappearance of milkweed (the Monarch caterpillar's host plant), pesticide use and other factors have all contributed to drastic declines in the population of the amazing Monarch Butterfly and threaten their existence. Monarchs are important pollinators and are wonderful and beautiful to look at. Their decline can be seen as an indicator of greater troubles in the world's ecosystems, and protecting them and their habitat will help other pollinators, as well as the creatures (like us) who depend on the pollinators. Learning about and protecting Monarchs and other butterflies and pollinators is an excellent way to teach people, young and old alike, about the interdependent web of life. Conservation efforts are already paying off and the numbers of Monarchs are on the rise again. You can be part of the solution! To learn more about the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, click HERE. It is easy to add your garden to the list of stops along the trail. Celebrate National Pollinator week by joining in!

A Pollinator Visits the Garden

The Pipevine Saga

A Beautiful Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

Investing oneself in nature can be emotionally trying. We humans like cute baby animals and storybook endings. And when things don't turn out the way we expect or hope, it can feel like a sock in the stomach. But the natural world is unemotional. Living things exist within systems and interconnected webs, without good and evil and without judgement. The cute baby squirrel is nourishment for an equally deserving, but maybe not so adorable (to many people) snake. The green darner dragonfly struggling in a banana spider's web will give the spider strength to lay eggs at the end of the season. The mud dauber wasp paralyzes dozens of spiders, turning them into zombie food storage, to feed its larva. The heron spears the bullfrog with its long sharp bill and eats it as it struggles. The wind blows the cardinal nest full of eggs out of the tree, and they break on the sidewalk. I know intellectually that I shouldn't be sad, but then I can't help myself. I am a nurturer and a carer. I forget that it's a jungle out there, and start to cheer for one side or another. And that's where I get into trouble.

My current story started a 6 or 7 years ago when I had planted a Calico Flower/Dutchman's Pipe (Aristolochia elegans) in the yard. It grew huge, with strange, spotted pinkish flowers. One day I went out and saw several huge caterpillars munching the leaves. At that time, I was not raising the plants as caterpillar food, and I was a little upset to see my marvelous flowers being chewed back to the stems! But I got over it as I realized what I'd attracted to the yard.

Gold Rim Swallowtail Caterpillars

I thought at first that they were Pipevine Swallowtails caterpillars, because this was a Pipevine plant. But it turned out that they were the Gold Rim (Polydamas) Swallowtail caterpillars. I was able to watch one of them eventually form a chrysalis and then emerge as an adult butterfly. It was a fascinating experience and I looked forward to seeing this happen again the next year, because the plants were healthy and established. But then I learned that the Calico Flowers were class II invasive exotic plants and I was working on making my yard Florida Friendly. As I've written again and again, invasive exotic plants are not good to have in your yard. So I pulled out the plants and felt a little sad that I would not see the return of the butterflies in the spring. Determined to change this, the next year I purchased a native Wooly Pipevine (Aristolochia tomentosa), took it home, planted it and waited eagerly for the Pipevine Swallowtails, who supposedly use this plant as a host. Weeks turned into years and no swallowtails moved into our yard. I stopped believing that they would ever come. (In hindsight, I think that the butterflies knew that there had to be enough vines available for their larvae to eat and it took years to get to that critical mass of growth.) I would occasionally see Pipevine Swallowtails as they flew over and nectared on the flowers, but they didn't stop and move in. Finally, this spring, I saw what I thought could be a Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly wafting over the, now abundant, tendrils of pipevine! The butterfly flitted and touched each vine, then flew to another as she picked the perfect location for her eggs. The next day I went out and found a nice little zigzag line of tiny, geometric eggs. A day later I found another bunch, and in the following days I found several others, tucked all over the yard. Finally, our yard had made it!

Eggs

A few days later, I went out to see the eggs and found that they had recently hatched! The caterpillars were so tiny, and I was so excited! I could see the minute creatures next to their empty eggs, which they were busily consuming for their first nourishment.

Day 1

I was fairly sure that they were Pipevine caterpillars, but I was not completely sure. I looked in my books and online and the eggs looked like they could have been Pipevine or Gold Rim. I couldn't see any photos of either type of caterpillars at that very early stage, so I decided to watch and photograph them as they developed. This turned into a project and I was invested. Danger! Warning! I never learn.

I observed them every day as they ate and grew. The eggs had been laid over several days, so their development was staggered. The first clutch would reach a milestone and the others followed the next days in order.

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

6 days in, they molted for the first time. As they outgrow their old skin cover, or "cuticle", they shed it and form a new one. They will go through 5 stages as caterpillars, called "Instars". After the 5th Instar, they molt into their chrysalis. After this first molt, they started to exhibit characteristics that made me fairly certain they were Pipevine caterpillars. For one thing, they had rather long fleshy appendages near their heads which I didn't see in photos of the Gold Rims. Also, I just wanted to have attracted Pipevines!

Day 6 (See shed molts off to the upper right)

Still small, the caterpillars stayed together and spent the days underneath leaves, hidden from predators and the sun. On day 7 I went to my usual spot for the first group, and something was wrong. Their vine lay on the ground, broken and withered. Tragedy had struck! But scanning the area, I was able to locate all of the group. Whew!

Oh no! Dead vine (with old cuticles stuck to underside)

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

By day 10, the rest of the caterpillars had spread out and no longer clustered together. Their appetites were too big to share one leaf! I found one of the larger caterpillars next to its shed cuticle. Molt #2. Now I was certain that they were Pipevines. Look at those long tentacles!

Day 10, Molt #2

The caterpillars were growing quickly, but I could no longer find more than just 2 or 3 from each group. I just hoped that they had dispersed and had not been eaten. Supposedly, the pipevine is toxic and makes them taste bad to birds. I don't know if you can say the same for Anoles, though, and we've got a lot of them. On day 18, I looked all over and found only one large caterpillar, attaching itself with silk to a stalk of Society Garlic. I believe that it was getting ready for another molt. Looking closer, I could see that there was a dead caterpillar at the base of the same plant. I have no idea what happened to the dead one.

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Then on day 19, the inevitable happened. I went out to check on the last caterpillar, and it was gone. Whether it had been eaten, or died of disease, or had just moved to a better vine, I'll probably never know. I also don't know if it was quite mature enough to pupate, although I'll keep looking around the yard to see if I can find a chrysalis. In any case, I felt pretty disappointed that all of those caterpillars were gone. It's a tough world out there, with lots of hungry predators and hazards. During those 18 days, we had freezing cold nights, some rain and scorching heat. Anything could have happened, and this is why the butterflies lay so many eggs. But as I look around the yard and see the scores of pipevine sprouts and the chew marks around the margins, I can feel fairly sure that the butterflies will continue to visit and the cycle will continue in the future. And if I'm lucky I'll be able to watch a Pipevine butterfly emerge from a chrysalis in my yard one day soon.